Ficus macrophylla

AKA Moreton Bay fig AKA Australian Banyan.

I’ve been familiar with this tree for quite a long time, but the last time I saw it (before this shot) was roughly nine to ten years ago. Still the same tree and still as massive as it has always been. A bit more carved into by people, however.

This shot gives an idea of the thickness of the branches, as well as how they spread out. It also gives a good idea of how much of the area is shaded by the tree as its shadow stretches pretty far.

The background is blown out a lot more than I would have liked and I think that does harm the photo a little bit.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s TPM photo challenge for this week.

The theme for this challenge is “Wood”.

I suggest checking out Leanne’s photography, as well as checking out what other people submit into the challenge.

You can find the challenges here.

I hope you enjoy.

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Autumn Trees

These trees are situated in one of NSW’s state forests.

I was trying to capture the mound surrounded by the trees at an angle that captured the trees’ height and made the shot kind of look dramatic. I should’ve gone for a lower angle and aimed upward as this is a little too level to capture what I was going for.

I still like the result, however, as the trees seem to increase in their clustering the closer to the mound they are (strictly in terms of seeing the photo as being on a flat plane).

This is my submission into the one hundred-and-sixth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.

The theme for this one is “Autumn“.

This shot was taken in Autumn and feels much like Autumn, hence my using it for this week.

The challenge is hosted by four people and cycles weekly:

Week 1 – Patti

Week 2 – Ann-Christine aka Leya

Week 3 – Amy

Week 4 – Tina

This one is hosted by Patti. Next week’s host is Leya.

I recommend checking out how people are interpreting the challenges. I also recommend joining in. It’s a growing, fun community.

I hope you enjoy.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 56: A Series of Paragraphs

It is a rather cold morning. I’m sitting here, getting ready for the shift of which I am soon going to be a part of when it comes to the meeting of “work” and “getting paid”, and I just want to warm up. Listening to an album that came out a few weeks ago and trying to decipher its secrets so that I can write about it at length. Probably not the best time to do so as work will come soon and I still need to ablute so that I can feel shower fresh before I feel yelled-at fresh. It’s going to be a long day (though maybe it won’t) and this is going to be a long text, though not longer than my usual attempts at something resembling length, though maybe it will. Depends on how soon I decide to stop the timer and then decide if it is worth continuing on or throwing in the proverbial towel.

Could probably use that towel to dry myself after showering, but I digress.

So here’s the point where I start building up to something. The introductory paragraph is out of the way. It is as flat and dull as I can try and make it right now, but I imagine that if my fingers were a little warmer it would be even more flat and dull, and in fewer words, as well as better, more complex words that stretch beyond reasonable use in some manner. This is meant to be the paragraph that builds on the things said in the first paragraph, but all it is doing at the moment is acknowledging its own existence and explaining its existence (to some, extent), which might be a lot better than what I would have planned if I had indeed planned anything at all.

I think that now that the first and second paragraphs are out of the way, I need to move onto the third one. This one continues the building whilst strengthening the subject of the topic at hand, though the topic at hand at the moment is the text itself, so all this is doing right now is wasting space and time. It could be worse, of course, but it could also be better. This whole thing could be much better. To be honest, it doesn’t need this paragraph, the previous ones and the ones that are going to follow this one. This is all a little too aware of itself, but I guess now that I’ve come this far I feel as though there is no reason to stop. I don’t need to keep going, but I am going to keep on going as part of the writing of this is allowing my hands to warm up a little, but also to exercise the brain and get out all the stuff that I need to get out of my brain so that I can write something with a bit more substance… I hope.

Alright, so this is the fourth paragraph. Perhaps it is the fifth. Depends on how much you consider one sentence to be as paragraph.

With all of what has been said so far, I am now considering this to be the sixth paragraph. Perhaps that is a reflection of how bad my spacing, pacing and phrasing is, but I’ve come this far and I don’t have much longer before I need to wrap everything up, so here is a good place to mark as the sixth paragraph in a series of paragraphs that are doing little else other than showing that they exist and explaining their purposes without necessarily arguing their existences beyond the idea of the need to exist in a form that shows some sort of coherent flow and argument. That’s worth something, but right now it is not worth much. What is worth much is the album of which I am listening to so I can review it. Problem is that perhaps I’m enjoying it a little more than I should which causes issues in talking about the quality of the content, but sometimes that is the way that things go.

I think that if I focus on this writing more than I focus on the music that is flowing around my ears, then I should be able to detach a little and maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to write a little more about it other than saying “I really enjoy this and so should you”. That would be desirable , but then again maybe right now that wouldn’t be a good idea. Maybe I should just write about how much I enjoy the music I’m hearing and provide no justification or argument as to why. That would work. It would make things come out a lot faster. However, it wouldn’t do the music justice in any way, shape or form.

If perhaps I could justify saying that the album was bad, I would write that. Maybe when it comes to writing more in depth about the music I will be able to say that, but still point out that the album still is enjoyable. That would be a nice thing, though maybe not. Maybe I just need to get better at writing.

Alright, so now that that is all said and (mostly) done, I think I should work on wrapping this whole thing up. I don’t have much time left before the commencement of my shift. I need to start increasing my levels of being ready, as well as my levels of being prepared. The weekends are getting busier and busier, so there needs to be a greater amount of preparation and calmness. That said, I don’t feel much like working at the moment. Still, money is currently needed. Would just be a bit better if it didn’t come with the caveat of being blamed for someone else not reading, or paying attention, or refusing to accept answers they don’t like.

This is both the tenth paragraph and the concluding sentence.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 14:09:98

I wrote this yesterday, then finished getting ready for work, then kind of forgot about uploading it, or doing anything else for the rest of the day.

Maybe this is a little too referential. Not sure.

Written at home.

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Young Avicennia marina

Also known as a grey mangrove.

This is near where I grew up. This place has (at least in my lifetime) always had mangrove plants, but it’s still nice to see them spreading as they help to keep the local environment healthy and stable.

I like how the light and colour came through in this shot. There’s a certain something about it that I can’t quite describe that appeals to me.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 718: The Wave is up

The afternoon trickles on through a sieve, but it does not seem to be dragging. It’s a mixture fare too thin and effortlessly flowing to be able to be stopped by mere holes. Even if the holes were afternoon-proof, the afternoon would still find a way. It would likely overload the whole thing and just blast it out of the way.

Right now I feel like I’m riding the waves. The wave I’m on is up and it’s not long before I hit another low point so I need to make the most of what time I have before that happens, which I guess means I’m going to do a lot of writing in a short amount of time, or something to similar effect and so on and so forth and you get the idea.

So I’m sitting here, warming my hands up through the process of writing this bit of text so that I can get started on the reviews and start churning things out at a faster rate than usual. That is the hope that I have, but perhaps I’ll peter out sooner rather than later. There’s still a bit of time before I found out, to be honest. Probably shouldn’t be thinking about that in the first place, but I am and now I am writing about it and that is the way that this is going so I guess I’ll try and move on.

Maybe I just need a long break from everything. Either that or just keep on working and keep on working on building up and refining, but perhaps the big long break is more pressing at the moment. I think that perhaps I’ve been pushing a little too much for a little too long and it’s starting to fold back in on itself and instead of getting out of the way I’m letting the whole thing just fall on me. I could be wrong. I could be right. I don’t know. What I do know is that I really do feel like having a bit of a break for a while. Perhaps half a year of doing nothing. Of course what would happen is instead of doing nothing I’d get a few days in and start doing other stuff. I don’t think I quite have the ability to stop for a long period anymore, which I guess is a good and a bad thing, but of course this has nothing to do with anything (though it does but I’m trying to switch the topic deftly), so allow me to deftly switch the topic.

So I think that there are things out there, as well as things that are not things, but somehow there’s going to be coverage of both, but I need to make sure that the wave stays where it is so I can stay on top of it as I am floating in the ocean and I am at the mercy of energy passing through its massive, all-encompassing and overwhelming body.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:33:51

I think this could’ve been much more cohesive and coherent. I think I jumped around a little too much.

Written at home.

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Interlacing

I saw this in The Royal National Park.

This is probably a not-uncommon thing to see, but there’s only one place where I am absolutely certain as to where I can see this kind of sedimentary pattern at a beach. There are probably others I’ve seen, but I cannot remember.

I like the sense of direction and flow, as well as the structural layout. To me it seems quite interesting and beautiful.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 717: Dull Ramble

Once more I’ve wasted the day, though there was a little bit of work that was done, but that is now in the past and I am now here.

So this is your warning that this is likely going to be a dull writing, so it’s not too late to turn around and (metaphorically) walk away.

So anyway, I guess I’m going to do that thing where I just go on a pointless and rather dull ramble, but that’s the way I feel like going right now. I don’t feel like trying to write more fiction. I don’t feel like trying to dip into some poetry or write about dreams. I don’t feel like doing much, to be honest. Adding to this is that soon I will be needing to do the thing that involves cooking so that I can eat dinner and thus have a stomach that could be considered close to full, or something to similar effect, or something.

Still, I really should try and get something done as I haven’t done much of anything since the week’s beginning and I’m feeling the desire to write and do a number of other things, but of course those things are not being done and as such I’m now sitting here writing about the fact that I have not done those things which I guess is something to write about. I should probably say what those things are, but that’s not going to happen right now as right now I just want to get this done.

Actually, now I am feeling like cooking. Cooking might just be a good idea to engage with earlier rather than later. Sooner I eat, the sooner I feel full and thus the sooner I have eaten, and so on and so forth. You get the idea.

Well, that’s pretty much it. I’ve got nothing left. I am realising that writing in the evening is not serving me as well as I thought it would, but to be honest I’m writing in the evening more due to procrastination than anything else. That’s on me. I need to own it, wear it, and all that other stuff that people say when they realise something about something.

Okay; that is now pretty much it. I’ve nothing left to say on this evening of evenings. I’ll just close this off now. Well, not right now, but soon enough. I need to find the right words to use to end this bit of writing, though that’s not different from usual, now that I think about it, though I’m not really thinking about it as…

So anyway, now that there aren’t many words left I guess I can say that I’m nearing the end of this bit of writing. It wasn’t interesting. It was flat. It expressed something which is good, but I need to be more efficient with the words that I’m using and how I use them to express things.

Now that that’s said, I’m gonna finish this.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:45:09

I think I’ve covered how I feel about this bit of writing better than I usually do.

Written at home.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 716: Day off Today

Alright, so yesterday was a day off and today was a day off and I’ve been sitting here, doing very little for a long while and that’s okay as sometimes you need to do that kind of thing in order to get more done. If you don’t get more done you get less done, but sometimes that also is okay. There are a lot of things that are okay, now that I think about it, but of course there are a lot of things that are most definitely not okay. That is the way that the things sometimes go and that is something that needs to be lived with sometimes. Such is the way of life, as they say, but whoever they are that are the they that are saying it is a mystery to me as I do not care. It is just important as a figure of speech, though perhaps I should care more about those unknown people who cover the spectrum of existing within the realm of “they”.

Though now that I think about it, there are other things on the plate of thinking that I must think about and consider that I am yet to on this fine evening. I need to think about how soon it will be until I finally detach myself from the couch and move to another room. I need to think about how it is that I’m typing as fast as I am and not slower. Actually, I know the answer to that one and that is not something of which I am going to get into as it should be quite evident at this stage, I am slowing down time without slowing myself so that I can get a little more done in a little bit less time, but I cannot make it too obvious. I can only slow time only so much so as to make sure that I am still appearing as though I am moving at an acceptable pace, though still quite fast.

I could claim that it is my skill in the art of writing faster than some people write, yet slower than others but of course this would be a blatant lie. It all comes down to the manipulation of time and the flow of time so as to appear as though one is going faster, even when they are not going faster and that’s all okay by me, or something to similar effect.

Anyway, I think I have gotten heavily away from the subject at hand and so must embrace the topic of at the base of the foot and find a way to go elsewhere with all of this dialogue that I am currently spewing out of my fingers, though realistically it’s just a monologue of which I am currently engaging. Such is the way of the thing of which I am currently engaging, but now that I’ve got that all out of the way I think I will just close this off.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:13:54

This being lazy shows quite more than I anticipated.
Really loose writing, kind of messy. There might be something worth it in here. Don’t know.

Written at home.

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View of the Beach

More cabins in The Royal National Park. Not the same ones as the ones in the photo featuring cabins I recently shared.

Kind of a small, peaceful scene. Maybe. It doesn’t quite feel calm. Feels a bit windy (though I don’t think it was overly so), though wind can be calm.

I think that perhaps I could’ve done a better job of capturing the beach and the ocean, but I do like as to how this kind of feels enclosed.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week.
I suggest checking out Leanne’s photography, as well as checking out what other people submit.

A lot of what people are submitting will likely end up here.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 715: Shallot Pancakes

Alright, so I’m here in my living room with my housemates and they’re probably wondering as to why I’m typing so fast. I don’t know as to why I’m typing so fast.

One of them (Fe) is talking about his shallot pancakes. The other one is asking about the pancakes. My partner is on her phone. I am cutting through the sound by typing rather loudly and trying to be speedy at the same time. It’s a tough job, let me tell you, but someone has to get it done some how. There is no other option.

Well, there are other options but unfortunately I am far too lazy to explore them at this current juncture in time. Right now I just want to relax. Still, if I went to the bedroom and wrote at my desk, then my writing would be much faster. Doing the typing whilst resting the laptop on my legs does not make for a comfortable position to be in. It also does not allow for the kind of arm room that I normally require, but that isn’t important right now.

Right now it’s all about the relaxing and taking it easy whilst hanging out with the housemates in the living room. The light is warm and low and there is the sound of eating and the sound of food. That is the way that the thing is going right now. This isn’t much of an event, however, but there are other things to worry about, or something to similar effect. I’m getting off topic, even though there was no topic. I think that I’m loosening up a little which is a good thing and a bad thing at the moment. Right now I’d rather remain a little rigid, but the laziness is taking over and I’m relaxing and loosening and that is finding its way into my writing, which I can’t do much about at the current moment. Oh well. I’ll keep on getting loose and finding out how to listen to the words without listening to the words. If that does not make sense, then I don’t really care right now. I’m on another plane of a plane that is not a thing, so long as it does not flip itself on the way toward the super tube.

If that does indeed happen, then how many fish will entangle themselves upon a rising moor beyond the reproach of every nodding man riding the horse toward the destiny of yesterday? How will the children find the event horizon and thus allow themselves to transform into fleshy beings of the ascended church when the hole holds the hoop in a toroidal shape meeting in the centre of it all without  the information leaking out on the other side, wherever that side may or may not be?

There is no telling, really, but if the end is dead the perhaps there is a way to return from it all so long as the frogs do their homework.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:33:34

So this was rather flat up until a certain point where the conversation happening around me started seeping in. Then it was just silly.

Written at home.

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